Grade Level: 3rd-5th
Type: Interactive Games, Videos, Tutorials (Make Your Own Mehen Game), Lesson Plan Activities, Teacher Resources, Virtual Museum Tours, Historical Figures in Egyptology, Chapter Book Style Text (Ex. Chap. 1: Coffins and Mummy Masks), etc.
Ireland, H. (2018, May 23). Discover Ancient Egypt. National
Museums Scotland.
https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-
collections/games/discover-ancient-egypt/
Focal Grade Level: According to information found on the website, the digital reference information, activities, and games, etc. are intended for 3rd-5th grade students.
Rationale: The variety of digital access features available on this website support "hand-on, minds-on" student-centered learning. The games and other interactive features allow students to self-explore, list historical figures, classify mummies according to class, construct a game from a list of supplies and instructions, compose paragraphs that cover key facts and information about the culture, and differentiate cultural differences and similarities between the student's culture by comparing societal, religious, agricultural, intellectual and medical achievements. This website will provide students with opportunities to utilize factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge to construct subject specific comprehension. Introduction to websites with a wide variety of digital access feature helps students organize information and create content specific schemas necessary to understand how they fit into the schema of world cultures.
Published in 2018 and updated February 1, 2019, the Ancient Egyptian Collection, presented by National Museums Scotland, is a web-based digital resource for the exploration of the Ancient Egyptian culture. The website is very user friendly and provides a wealth of information about everyday life, pharaohs, mummies, pyramids, and much more. The digital access features and classroom supports make this an ideal choice for informational digital content exploration. It could easily be used in writers workshop setting or as a focus lesson featuring technology and how it supports virtual learning. It is fabulous resource for interactive learning, text-based facts and information, and audio and visual supports for English Language Learners. Throughout the website, students are making connections between vocabulary words and their essential nature to the success of a civilization for more than three millennia.
1. AUTHORITY: National Museums Scotland (NMS) work nationally and internationally within the fields of excavation and identification. Their executive staff holds positions or honorary titles from local universities and are either doctorate candidates or holders. According to their website, "Post-excavation analysis of artefacts is integral to any excavation project. Objects such as pottery, stone tools and worked animal bone all have the potential to inform us about aspects of ancient life. It is vital for the excavated finds to be identified and analysed as they have the potential to provide crucial information about the date, function, lifespan and status of the site and the people who used it. This also ensures the archive will be in good condition when it enters a museum." Other countries seek the expertise of NMS authorities to verify and confirm authenticity of antiquities.
2. ACCURACY: Experts at NMS work as a cohort to carefully excavate, authenticate, and repair anthropological and archaeological items recovered from dig sites. They work within the national and international archaeology communities to maintain high standards for accurate identification and careful handling of historically important artifacts. They are accredited, college educated professionals with extensive knowledge of Egyptian relics.
3. APPROPRIATENESS: The artifacts shown on the website are appropriate for elementary age children and are described in terms that the average 3rd-5th grade student would be able to understand, especially with the pictures and details for each item discussed. The website is multimodal and presents information in text, pictures, videos, games, activities, and blogs. The information provided covers a wide variety of aspects associated with Ancient Egypt.
4. ARTISTRY: The director of website design and maintenance worked in a team to construct a site that is free from advertisements and pop-up ads that can be distracting to young children. The site is easy to negotiate and is hyperlinked in such a way that even if the students' lose their place, it is easy to go to the top menu - which is visible at the top of every webpage. The website includes a wide variety of interactive features, such as artifacts that can be viewed in a 360 format, interactive games, and zoom features to see each item in more detail.
5. APPEARANCE: The content is both engaging and appropriate for third grade students. The digital access features are engaging and questions throughout have a simple way of engaging the children in thoughtful consideration of what life was like and the care that Ancient Egyptians took with the preparation and burial of their family members. The website introduces several lesser known archaeologists who were integral in the location and recovery of important artifacts. The games are challenging but not overwhelming, and at the same time they are teaching about daily life during that time in history. The site takes care to cover a wide range of Egyptian topics that students can understand, participate in, and lead their peers in a thoughtful and enlightening discussion. There is easily enough material to create a published project individually or work in groups to give an oral report - possibly a travel brochure transporting their fellow classmates to Ancient Egypt itself.
ACCESSIBILITY: A thoughtful consideration for any well-structured website is accessibility for those with disabilities. Currently the only accessibility topic is instructions on how to increase the font size for each web search platform. However, the National Museums Scotland have many programs in place to assist people who have limited sight or hearing, as well as specific groups who need a specific type of environment to be comfortable and at ease, such as dementia and autism. Information can be found under the Access & Additional Support link, located in the footer.
ADVERTISEMENTS: There are no advertisements on this website.
AFTERWARD, AUTHOR, EPILOGUE, ILLUSTRATOR NOTES: In this case, there are several tabs that allow the designers to explain their vision, aims, values, what they do and why, and how their website supports learning.
AUDIO: No music is playing, but there are different chimes that sound during the games that change tune according to the student's correct or incorrect answers.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES: Under the "Research Repository" tab there are four main research themes listed. When the student clicks the link, it will provide citation information for that theme.
BOOKMARK: The website can be bookmarked and includes a variety of share features (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.).
BULLETED INFORMATION: The website does utilize bullet points to draw attention to lists of important information.
FOCAL ACCESS FEATURE: One of the best things about this website is the child-centered approach to continued learning. The interactive games are a sure crowd pleaser that teaches about the various aspects of Ancient Egypt. Additionally, the website provides additional learning supports for a wide variety of topics. National Museums of Scotland's skies the limit approach to learning with advertisements and pop-ups taking over the site is a refreshing treat.
FOOTER: The footer is located at the bottom page and lists four main headings, Visit Us, Our Organisation, Learning & Access, and National & International with subheadings that hyperlink to pages that fall under those headings.
GLOSSARY: There is not a glossary of terms specific to Ancient Egypt. The website does provide a glossary for terms that are technical and require more background activation (Ex. Glossary of Parasite Terms).
HEADINGS & SUBHEADINGS: Every webpage as both headings and subheadings. Headings are used to address the main topic (Ex. Box of Amenhotep II), while subheadings break down the larger idea into smaller more topic specific information (Ex. The Protective Household God).
HYPERLINK: Hyperlinks are present and allow the student to mouseover a word or group of words and be instantly transported to that location, enabling students to easily explore the entire website.
INSET SECTIONS OR PAGES: There are insets throughout the website, and are used to draw attention to important information or break up long sections of text, that might be overwhelming to the viewer. An example of this is the photograph of a facial reconstruction bust of a mummified woman with the subheading "What did the queen look like?" followed by a small paragraph with more information.
INTERACTIVE IMAGES: There are several interactive photographs. One of which is called "The Box of Amenhotep II," which allows you to spin the object 360 degrees.
INTERACTIVE QUESTIONS: Questions such as "Who was the Qurna queen?" and "How good are you at spotting real ancient Egyptian artefacts from amongst the fakes? " are just some of the questions asked on the website to initiate student curiosity and activation of background knowledge.
INTERNET DEPENDENT: Internet is required to access this application. There is a lesson plan and activity worksheet that accompany the application. They can be downloaded and worked on offline, after the student has viewed and participated in the online activities. This would be an ideal activity for partners, small groups, or large group discussion.
INTRODUCTION, PREFACE, PROLOGUE: Website editors sometimes include an introduction to give a brief overview of what visitors will find and to build interest. For this website, the designers touted the 6,000 piece collection that includes items from shrouds to mummies to furniture and jewellery.
MAIN MENU BAR: The main menu bar is found at the top of the webpage. When the student clicks the hyperlink, picture tabs with basic information open up below.
MOUSEOVER: The majority of the website has mouseover features that allow the student to access links to other parts of the website. Mouseover actions are available when the mouse pointer changes from a diagonal arrow to a pointing hand.
POP-UPS: It is a welcome change to see that there are no pop-ups; we all know that Pop-up advertising can be very distracting, especially in a learning environment.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE: A pronunciation guide was not present.
RIGHT CLICK: Right-click options are available (new tab, new window, save link, copy link, and inspect page)
SCROLL: The scroll features allow you to move up and down the pages easily.
SEARCH BAR: I was able to find several things I was looking for faster, because the search option is available on each page.
SIDEBAR, SIDEBAR MENU: There are a variety of sidebar menus that allow the student to
TABLE OF CONTENTS: It does not include a traditional table of contents, however, just below the introduction a topic heading, picture, and brief description for each chapter previews what students will find.
TEXT: There is a wide variety of text, text fonts, and size found on each page.
THESAURUS: This website does not include a thesaurus.
VIDEO: In addition to games the students can play, the website has a guided audio virtual reality tour of the museum's Ancient Egypt collection. Additionally, the website has several video links that take you off-site to view them.
ZOOM OPTIONS: Website visitors can use zoom access features to see pictures in greater detail and to increase the size of the font.
EdYouToo. [EdYouToo]. (2018, February 24).
Ancient Egypt for Kids [video]. EdYouToo.
Follow the link below to explore the Rosetta Stone by lines and individual characters.
Holmes, L. (2017, January 4). Interactive Rosetta
Stone Explorer.
https://www.leeholmes.com/blog/2017/0/
04/interactive-rosetta-stone-explorer/
Etext: Kindle
Lexile: 590, DRA Level: 34-38, F&P: O, Reading Level: Early Primary to Transitional, Read Aloud: 1st-3rd
Grade Level: 2nd-12th
National Geographic. [National Geographic].
(2017, December 17). Ancient Egypt 101
[video].YouTube.